The “cheap, fast and easy” production of synthetic drugs has completely transformed many markets internationally, the UN warned on Sunday, pointing to “disastrous consequences”.

Fentanyl, a synthetic opioid 50 times stronger than heroin“radically transformed opioid consumption in North America,” says a press release accompanying the annual report of the United Nations Office on Drug Control and Crime Prevention (ONUDC in French, UNODC in English).

In 2021, most overdose deaths in this region of the world were attributed to this substance.

Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid which used as an analgesic during anesthesia.

In the USA it is also used during executions of death row inmates.

It was first prepared in 1960 by the Belgian chemist Paul Janssen.

Fentanyl has a 100 times stronger analgesic effect than morphine, but a shorter duration of action, about 15 to 30 minutes.

Globally, “over 296 million people used drugs in 2021”in other words there was a “23% increase in 10 years”, with cannabis still by far the most widely used drug, according to the UN.

Even more alarming: the number of people suffering from substance use disorders has skyrocketed (+45%) over the same period.

And from drug usersjust one in five is in treatment.

Ukraine and Afghanistan: The production of such substances is in danger of increasing even more.

The agency also warns against the impact of the war in Ukraine, as “there are indications that it could trigger an expansion in the production and trafficking of synthetic drugs, given the know-how and large markets for synthetic drugs in the region.”

ONUDC also refers to the situation in Afghanistan, where the expected drastic reduction in opium and heroin-processing poppy cultivation, due to prohibition by the de facto Taliban government, may lead to a shift in focus, increasing the production of methamphetamine .

Already this Asian country was among the main producers of this highly addictive stimulant, which remains the “dominant synthetic drug produced illegally throughout the world”.

“We must step up the fight against traffickers who take advantage of armed conflicts and global crises to expand the production of drugs, especially synthetic substances,” said Gada Walli, the executive director of ONUDC, always during the institution’s press release.

The report also sounds the alarm about the consequences of what it calls the “drug economy” on the environment.

In the Amazon basin in particular, coca cultivation – the supply of which continues to break records – and “increasingly flexible” trafficking networks are “exacerbating” other “illegal activities” such as illegal deforestation and illegal wildlife trafficking.

Even more alarming: the number of people suffering from drug use disorders has skyrocketed (+45%) over the same period.

And of drug users, only one in five are in treatment.